AFTER earning a record $2.4 billion from tourism last year, Government is giving the sector an institutional shake-up in the midst of a 7.7 decline in long-stay visitor arrivals.

The Barbados Advocate Reports:

The Barbados Tourism Authority’s (BTA) board has been trimmed by seven and separate tourism marketing and product development companies are being created as part of a major restructuring exercise, Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy announced yesterday.

The leader of the opposition Barbados Labour Party is crying foul, accusing the ruling Democratic Labour Party of playing politics with the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) at the peril of the economy. The Opposition Leader says that at least eight members of the BTA Board were removed and replaced with two. You can read that full report here.

However, Tourism Minister Richard Sealy has made it clear that the others who have not been retained have accepted positions with the Tourism Development Company, one of two new bodies that will govern the sector. The Barbados Tourism Marketing Company will take charge of marketing the island, while the Barbados Tourism Product Development Company will be responsible for product development, according to The Daily Nation.

Caribbean 360 gives us the Minister’s rationale behind the establishment of the new entities:

Tourism Minister Richard Sealy - Caribbean 360/BTA

“We will have two entities that are engaged in two activities that are crucial to the long-term survival of our tourism industry. There will be a common services company for these two entities, so that corporate services and so on, administrative functions, those costs can be shared and we can have two efficient organisations that are focused on the tasks that confront them,” the Tourism Minister said.

The Minister has also announced that although long stay visitor arrivals declined marginally last year revenue reached a record 1.1 billion US dollars.

CBC News reports:

Minister Sealy says Barbados has developed a number of initiatives to stem the decline but these are not expected to be fully effective until late in the year and early next year.

One of the challenges is cut in air services brought on by cancellations by Air Jamaica in the United States market.

Finally, the Minister indicated that the effects of these initiatives aren’t expected to be felt before the end of this year, into early next year. Please check out the articles referenced for more details on this story.

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